Dr Cliff Scheiner wrote:
>Are any of Claud Butler's frame makers still alive? They would be in a first hand >position to describe exactly what the Claud Butler Bi-Laminate process was.
Yes, Bill Hurlow is a sprightly 83 and still racking in the miles. Bill pre dates Bi-lam with CB and only joined Paris's in 1952, and I would not bother him with this. The precise process used by CB and Paris would be of interest, because we are curious creatures, but the model given by Hilary in C+ seems very sensible to me (I will email you a scan in case you don't have it).
The issue is not so much the original bi-lam process, but the finished product. It is in realising that bi-lam was defined as a whole new class. So when a Richey with faux lugs appears and the question is posed, is this a bi-lam? all we have to ask is what class does it most closely conform to.
It need not be made exactly like Clauds, Paris's probably weren't made exactly like Clauds, but they are still classed as bi-lams.
>Sometimes advertizing slogans are not accurate descriptions of what
>the product actually is.
Never a truer word, and Claud was a master bullshi**er. He really was exceptional, a brilliant self publicist. His biz went belly up in Oct 1956, yet his name still goes on bike frames today.
>PS: Within the USA, the expression :"Southerner" and "Northerner" and >"Westerner" and "Easterner" are not pejorative, just geographically descriptive.
Same in UK I think. I am Scottish, of Irish descent, but my father was English, I married a French girl and my site covers 3 London Marques. Only Mick Butler could find a racist in that. No wonder he gets hate mail.
Norman Kilgariff (Glasgow, Scotland)
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